DAVAO CITY (PIA)–Department of Migrant Workers-XI (DMW-XI) Regional Director, Atty. Angela Librado-Trinidad has called on the public to be wary of suspicious acts of illegal recruitment and to report these instances to government authorities.
As a guest during the latest edition of the Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas, Atty Librado encouraged the public to also report such instances to the Public Employment Services Office (PESO) of local government units (LGUs) or to message the DMW and “visit us so that you can confirm if these offers are legitimate or not because most often, they are not.”
Atty Librado was particularly referring to offers of “6-month work abroad” or what she referred to as “seasonal work” in which query and complaint cases come “on a daily basis”.
She revealed DMW has waged massive monitoring activities on illegal recruitment and has widened alliances with local government units, barangay officials, national line agencies, with government enforcement agencies such as the Philippine National Police, the CIDG, and the National Bureau of Investigation among others.
She acknowledged as equally useful the tips off of concerned citizens from whom most reports on illegal recruitment that the DMW has received, come from.
“We are very thankful that they are now as vigilant as we hope them to be. At the end of the day the citizens are the ones who are the potential victims of illegal recruitment.
She appealed to the public to continue giving DMW reports on instances of recruitment and even on the commonly called “hiring” for work abroad.
“We would like to appeal to the public that if there are recruitment activities that are being done in the communities, please alert us. We can immediately give the info whether these agencies are allowed,” she said .
She made it clear that the Philippine Labor Code prohibits “direct hiring” especially of elementary level work such as domestic help. This provision however exempts those highly skilled and professionals.
“You can be exempted if you are a professional or a skilled worker. And another is that, the terms and standards of work must be over and above the standards that we have set,” she said referring to exempted instances of direct hiring.
“Mataas ang bar pag direct hire. Wala po tayong domestic workers, walang elementary occupations. Gusto po nating I clear yan sa ating mga workers who are desiring to go abroad. The rule is you can only be hired through a Philippine recruitment agency that is duly licensed by the DMW,” she stressed these points as shields against illegal hiring.
On the other hand, Atty Librado revealed that the DMW monitoring of illegal recruitment extends towards online “act of hiring” activities.
She explained that online posting “We are hiring” is not the sole definition of recruitment but one can also be liable for recruitment if he refers such post to someone else or asks interested parties to text a certain contact.
As a way of protecting those interested in working abroad, DMW has tagged down several social media pages. She revealed that some 20,000 Facebook and some 7,000 Tiktok accounts were tagged down in 2022.
On top of scrutinizing social media pages, DMW also monitors language centers and training institutes to check if they engage in illegal recruitment on top of their declared business operations.
To the public and to the recruitment agencies, Atty Librado said “ang dapat lang jud mang recruit kadtong may licensya. Tanang walay licensya, dili pwede mag-recruit [those allowed to recruit are only those with license; those which have none, should not be recruiting.] (JMDA. PIA XI)
